Family photos - a legacy
Like many of us I’m on a WhatsApp group where we celebrate friends’ birthdays with a chorus of good wishes and a round of (often quite embarrassing) photos. I never tire of going back through my old photos to find pictures to share. I trawl through digital images but the best bit is going through my boxes of old prints, going back 30 years or more.
It’s always an emotional journey to remind myself of the good times we’ve had together, to see how much we have changed (or not!), and how shockingly quickly time passes. Nothing reveals this more than pictures of the children through the years, from when they were babies to now, in many cases, strapping teenagers. A decade can feel like the blink of an eye…
“Life moves pretty fast…”
As Ferris Bueller once said, “…if you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”
It seems all of us are struggling with just how quickly time seems to pass these days. We lead busy, hectic lives. Often stressful, normally hard work, sometimes joyful, at times peaceful, occasionally mundane. It’s a rich tapestry, as they say.
However we’re experiencing time, one thing we can be sure of is that it only goes in one direction, and it isn’t slowing down. Whether we’re reminiscing about the past, planning for the future, or enjoying being in the moment, we want to be able to hold onto it.
Photos are an amazing way for us to do this. They freeze time, capture a moment, and tell a story. Family photos are a gift: a legacy for you, your children, and future generations. It doesn’t matter whether you are on an amazing adventure together, or simply documenting quiet moments at home. These images matter.
Even the most ordinary family moments deserve to be remembered. When you look back on them in years to come, they will be full of meaning, and among your most valued possessions. They connect us to each other, and to the past. They help us make sense of time, and perhaps, just for a moment, slow it down.
Your photos don’t need to be perfect…
…they don’t even need to be technically ‘good’. But if you approach photography with attention, and an open heart, you’ll find that you are creating important images that you will cherish for years to come.
So I encourage you to take more photos of your family. As you do, don’t look for perfection, don’t worry about telling people to look at the camera, and there is no need to say ‘smile!’. Look for connections, personality, interactions, relationships, expressions, unexpected moments, quiet moments of reflection. Look for the beauty in your everyday lives.
If you’d like to be in the photos for once!
Step out from behind the camera, relax, and let me do all the work. All you will need to worry about is being present and engaged with each other. If you’d like to know more about my approach to family photography and details about my sessions, prices and packages, just download my brochure here.